It's very simple. Spend virtually nothing; make decent profits (far less than needed to run a major); bottom line - a healthy black.

What people tend to forget is - we spent nothing in the 60s and early 70s.

In those heady days we were unaware of how profitable music could be. So our spend - Joe Meek; Genesis; Abba; Zombies; 10cc - was tiny, hoping for profits.

As it happened, when the profits came they were massive.

Seeing the inflow of cash, INDUSTRY cottoned on. Spending fortunes in buying, promoting and so on - because profits were huge.

They no longer are. Receptionists, secretaries, limousines, drugs, luxury - profits do not cover them.

This is a GOOD THING.

I founded UK Records with a tiny budget in small rooms above Boots the Chemist in Grafton Way.

We decorated the office ourselves with cheap boards and lowest cost carpets.

When I plugged THE SPARROW by THE RAMBLERS on Decca I got my staff in Gt Marlborough St to come in over the weekend (free; coffee and sausage rolls provided) to pluck feathers from a boa and place them in little boxes with tissues and the note "I'm only a poor little sparrow and can't afford Rolex watches to give away to shops" and sent them out to retail and radio. It sold hundreds of thousands - all profit (apart from the coffee and rolls).

But the greedy companies bought up labels, spent millions to make billions.

And grew and grew and grew.

Now the income - still very decent potentially - is simply not big enough to fund the overheads of Universal, EMI, Sony...

So it's back to basics.

If you find/write/produce/record a hit, you can do very nicely selling downloads, a few physicals via Amazon and others, building the artiste through small venues growing bigger if demand kicks in...

But you cannot fund giant offices in West London, executive salaries, drones to do the basics.

So your spend is limited to the creative effort.

What's wrong with that?

One thing missing from that statement.

Don`t fund an artistes ego. Everybody is in it together.

Encouraging that 171 people have read this thread in the hour since I put it up - and it's only just past ten.

Perhaps our business is getting up earlier again.

JK2006 wrote:
It's very simple. Spend virtually nothing; make decent profits (far less than needed to run a major); bottom line - a healthy black.

If you find/write/produce/record a hit, you can do very nicely selling downloads, a few physicals via Amazon and others, building the artiste through small venues growing bigger if demand kicks in...

But you cannot fund giant offices in West London, executive salaries, drones to do the basics.

Absolutely, spot-on, right on the button.

Nothing wrong with that except at radio. It seems that radio one only want music with big plots lots of marketing spend, preferably from the majors. Hopefully that mindset is changing and the "playola" scandal is going away at last.

It is very exciting and I know that there are a few from this site who are running their labels. Keep the faith guys, keep as much in-house as possible and best of luck.

Two solutions KZ - we bypass radio with other means (as I have done with Vile Pervert: The Musical and as I know you do with videos and You Tube) and we hype radio by impressing them with meaningless info (chart positions, views etc).

Let's not forget - RADIO doesn't matter. What matters is reaching ears. If radio ignores (like it is with High School Musical songs - quite rightly in my opinion but still) public demand, it will fail (as is happening).

But we need certain other routes to reach ears.

I always carry a radio with me, but for cricket updates, that`s the way it is.

Funny that a book came out this week which totally agrees with that NEW MODEL of the music industry. I went to the book launch last night at the 12 Bar Club.

Check it out here ( contributions by many in the industry ) published by Dennis who do Bizarre - Viz - Fortean Times - Mens Fitness etc etc.

www.magazine-group.co.uk/magazine-group/...ke-it-in-music.thtml

The days of high overheads are over. Long live the lean DIY style model which will see more bands than ever having good careers making great music I hope !

Not sure about the book,(shall buy a copy and get back to you on that) but I love the 12 bar club, although I find it bizarre playing in a chimney sized theatre atmostphere!

My mate was the owner(?) certainly the manager for a bit.

Thanks for the link BR, I am just leafing through it.

It reminds me of the new trend of online magazines which will soon replace offline paper magazines. www.lulu.com can help you make one. It's the equivalent of the football programme. When my lot are ready this is exactly what we are going to do.

Perform every week (TV/video TV) and have an online magazine plugging our own stuff. Control our own media and do it Man Utd style.

What ! No download version ? Well they have just lost a sale. I was about to buy it then decided against it.

By the way people, books and magazines seem to have got it right where music seems to be failing. The "read before you buy" feature made me interested in buying a book about the Spice Girls. I forgot about it until i ran into it in a bookshop and promptly bought it.

I would have bought it much earlier if there was an online/downloadable version.

Dennis do do downloadable versions of some of their publications - may be worth contacting them to ask them if this book will be made available that way.

When I asked last night they have Worldwide orders for the book including several thousands for the USA ! and expect a big demand because it is being featured across the student campuses at the end of September with a tie up with Blackwells.

The flyer says it will be available in W H Smith and Borders - but it is not in my local one yet.

I think you will find that many of the discussions on the TIPSHEET and Record of the Day have helped to mould the content of the book It reflects the forward looking view of the industry which these sites have fostered in the last 10 years or so and which JK has once again alluded to in his initial post in this thread.

JK is an expert on the Music Industry with more experience than most - so I am sure that those in the labels are reading this thread and nodding their heads.

I hope that this book will help to change the industry and make it more forward looking and show how positive the future can be - the old model is on the way out. This is the future.

Does anyone have an idea how many freebies are given away by the majors on an average project?

I have a sneaky feeling that I may have sold more copies of one of my DIY albums than they give away to people that don`t actually listen to the freebies (assuming that they don`t end up on E bay etc).

Fact; People are starting to prefer to go to the "green grocer" as opposed to the "supermarket" again.

This does not mean that I want to be a "supermarket", (when I "grow up") I rather like shutting some days.

And another question - do majors still press up CDs for promotional purposes?

Surely radio these days is geared up for mp3's?

Now I can answer that one as I plug to some stations. Yes they do press them up, but a plugger, if successful will walk back away with the things after they have been burned into the system.
Probably hence why half the things end up on E Bay.

Over 4500 people have read this thread. I would say that's the entire global music industry!

Ooooh! I feel the guilt of the EBay sellers already!